Absolute Radio presenters reveal the songs they listen to in good times and tough times

Since the start of May, presenters from across the Absolute Radio family of stations have been choosing their Time To Listen songs to mark Mental Health Awareness Week.

During Danielle Perry's Evening Show, Claire Sturgess, Sarah Champion, Baylen Leonard, Ben Burrell, Ben Earle, Jay Lawrence and Jennie Longdon have been opening up about the one song they turn to in good times and/or bad times.

It could be a song that takes them back to a special time in their lives, a song that gives them a much-needed boost, or a song that reminds them that better days are ahead.

Check out all of the choices below.

If you need help and advice to improve your mental health then head over to our Mental Health Awareness page RIGHT HERE.

Absolute Radio presenters reveal their Time To Listen songs:

Baylen Leonard – John Denver: 'Take Me Home Country Roads'

“It’s the end of another great night out. Old friends, new friends and people who've just met all have their arms around each other on the dance floor in circles of various sizes, swaying back and forth and beer has been spilt on shoes and shoulders, but nobody really notices. Mainly because everyone is totally in it, screaming along to the last song, not wanting it to end and everybody knows every single word - eyes closed, heads thrown back, hitting all the big notes with everything they have. It’ such a joyous scene and I'm just so happy to be a part of it.

"I had been DJing at country club night called Buck N’ and Bull that my friend Max had started a few years back. It had become a bit of a tradition to play the same song at the end of each night. Not a banger exactly, but one that would send everyone off into the night still singing it with a smile on their face. And it had also become a tradition for Max to beckon me down from the DJ booth as soon as I hit play on that last song and we would throw our arms around each other and we joined whatever circle of people was nearest and we would sing along and celebrate. He would always turn to me and say, ‘I love you mate.’ And I'd say it right back between scream singing the chorus, laughing and dancing with everybody.

"Max died recently. Suddenly, unexpectedly, completely out of the blue. Max was gone. It still seems inconceivable to me that those words are true, but they are and I know a lot of you can relate and I know that feeling of it being almost impossible to get your head around it. Whether it was expected or not, it hurts. Not knowing exactly what to do or how to process this. I naturally turned to music. And there was only one song for it - Max's song. The traditional final song of the night. A song that brought us and so many other people together. Such a good time. And yeah, it still makes me sad. But mainly now, this song makes me smile because for about three minutes Max is still here and everybody's having an amazing time because of him. We're swaying back and forth, arms around each other and I turn to Max and I get to say it one more time – ‘I love you mate.’"

Claire Sturgess – Pixies: ‘Debaser’

“Back in early 2020 at the start of the pandemic when the whole country was in lockdown, we were allowed out once a day for an hour to exercise. I would use this precious hour to go for a jog around the beautiful Alexandra Park area in North London.

"Until one morning in April 2020 when I felt something literally snap in my foot. I managed to hobble home. Turns out I hadn't broken it, but I had damaged the tendon quite badly. I wasn't able to walk for weeks afterwards, couldn't get to see a doctor or have any scans and so for the next year pretty much and I just had to live with the fact that I couldn't walk very far. I could do exercises and stretches to keep my foot moving, but I was kind of stuck and the pain in my foot and the worry of Covid would keep me awake most nights.

"As time went on and some lockdown restrictions were eased, I was able to finally talk to a doctor get an MRI and start a proper programme of rehabilitation. By last summer, 2021, I was pretty much able to walk again almost without pain. I thought ‘well, that's it now. I'm lucky. I can live with this.’ I told myself that I would never take walking without pain for granted.

"Now I would never class myself as a runner ever. But there was something I missed about jogging slowly around the London parks, but I was scared that I would do the same thing again. So almost two years after I first hurt my foot I tentatively, a few weeks ago, went out for the tiniest jog around the block and it didn't hurt. So, I'm still doing it now. Very slowly and only a few minutes at a time, but I'm building it up and I'll get there.

"Music always plays such a massive part in motivating me and pushing me forward. I have a great mix of playlists to choose from but there's one song that I always try to include on every playlist I compile. When it starts playing it's like an injection of rocket fuel and it propels me forward. It’s ‘Debaser’ by Pixies.”

Ben Burrell – Joni Mitchell: ‘Both Sides Now’

“I love this artist and I love this song and it actually changed its meaning for me when I became a dad. Me and my wife were blessed three years ago to have our daughter Agnes enter our lives. We love her very much. But we had a difficult start, really, because we were first-time parents, we didn't really have a clue what we were doing in retrospect. Didn't have a clue what was coming.

"My wife found it very difficult at the beginning, she had postpartum depression, which was a real struggle for her and it was hard to watch someone you love go through that. But also in terms of myself, I kind of forgot to look after myself. I always say to dads and would be dads, ‘don't forget to look after yourself.’ Because depression can affect you at that time as well. It can creep up on you out of nowhere and I feel it really did for me.

"The whole situation is kind of a perfect storm because your life has changed beyond all recognition. There's chemicals flying around in both of your bodies and also you're just getting no sleep. Sleep deprivation on its own can send the best of us over the edge. I remember turning up at work one day and the show was just about to start and I watched the big clock in front of me count down to the start of the show. I just thought ‘I don't know if I'm gonna open my mouth now and start crying.’ Which is never a good way to start the show.

"Thankfully, I didn't and slowly but surely our daughter Agnes started to sleep at night and slowly but surely we got used to what it is to be parents and we found so much joy in that. It's strange that so much joy can come out of such a difficult start to a situation but we are so blessed to have her in our lives."

“I remember listening to this song quite a lot when I was trying to get Agnes to sleep desperately at night. I don't know what the intended meaning of it from Joni Mitchell is but, as I said, it's a song that has changed its meaning for me and these days I really feel like it's a song about perspective on life and your perspective on life and I just love it.”

Jennie Longdon – ‘Nirvana: ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’

“When I stated secondary school, I was put into classes away from all of my friends. I found it really hard to fit in with the students in these classes. I wasn't trendy. I didn't feel cool enough for them and any confidence I'd had before completely disappeared. I became shy and nervous. The kids in my classes saw this as an opportunity to pick on me. School became very, very hard. I'd go home in the evenings jump on MSN Messenger and there the bullying would continue. I felt like I have no escape whatsoever.

"Until one day a friend of mine who had noticed I'd become withdrawn sent me a song over MSN – Nirvana, ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’. I ran downstairs pinched my dad's old pair of headphones, which I had to significantly adjust to fit my tiny head and hit play. Now it's a simple four chord structure. There's no bridge but none of that mattered. The sound was significantly greater than the sum of its parts - the aggression, the passion, the beauty, the sheer amount of noise, it just blew my mind. In that moment, I was taken to a different place. An escape that I had been needing, a world where you could be whoever you wanted to be. It said ‘here's to not fitting in. Here's to being different. Here's to you.’

"This wasn't just the start of my obsession with rock music, it was the start of something much much bigger. Me being unapologetically me. Even now at 33, I have moments where I lose myself and I need mind blowing arresting guitar sounds, guttural vocals and thunderous drumming like this to bring me back to me.”

Ben Earle - Amy Winehouse: ‘Rehab’

“I had a whole another life in music before country music. I was a solo artist doing a pop thing, kind of singer songwriter pop. I was signed to Island Records when I was 17. The experience that I had, the ups and the downs are incredible. But there's one memory I'll never forget, which was supporting Amy Winehouse. This was right before she just became this absolute superstar, just before her second album (‘Back to Black’) was released and she was already pretty big.

"The first show I supported her was at the Fleece and Firkin, it's a fairly small venue, think 400 to 500 people, I was 17 years old and I thought I knew who I was and what was going on. But it's such a blur when I look back, I was just going with the flow. I remember I did the soundcheck and I heard this voice go ‘Ben! Ben Earle. Where’s Ben Earle?!’ She came through and she said hello to me and she said ‘your voice is just beautiful. I could hear it travelling through the corridors to my dressing room.’

"It's awful when I look back to think I had no idea of the struggles she was going through and how hard it can be and how isolating it can be to be an artist. No one really tells you that. I just thought she was living this incredible dream and that's something I wanted to achieve myself. I only did three shows with her and then she went on to have this incredible career until her absolutely tragic death.

"Whenever I hear this song ‘Rehab’, it just takes me back those tiny shows. I often think back to if I knew what I know now as a much older person, would I treat the whole thing any differently? I don't know. But this is such an incredible song for an incredible timeless voice.”

Jay Lawrence – Fleetwood Mac: ‘Dreams’

"As we’re focusing on mental health, I thought I'm talking about someone else. Someone super close to me, had had issues with their mental health for their whole life - my dad.

"He’s struggled in so many different ways over his life and I don't want to go through a life history of a man who I admire in so many different ways. But I will tell you what's changed in the last 20 years or so. 20 years ago, maybe even 15 years ago, I wouldn't be so open about the issues that my dad faced. Some of my best mates are only just finding out about it now actually. I would make something up or I'd say that he wasn't feeling physically well, if he was missing from some sort of social event or something like that. I look back at that now and I just feel stupid. I feel a bit embarrassed with myself because that embarrassment that I held for my dad when I was younger just makes me feel sad.

"It's fair to say that I don't feel that way now. We talk daily about how he's feeling, and other things. Sometimes he's feeling good. Sometimes he's feeling not so good. But the fact we’re speaking about it is one thing that has made it easier. He knows that he has people around him that you can speak to, and more than happy to listen as well.

"I texted him the other day saying, ‘what's your favourite song?’ And this is this is truly my dad. He won't just answer. He won't just give me one song or anything. He sent a massive list, a huge list. I could play every single one of those songs, but I'm not going to. Instead, I'm just gonna play one. For my dad, this is Fleetwood Mac and ‘Dreams.’

Sarah Champion – Tom Petty: ‘American Girl’

"So, here's the thing. Everyone suffers from time to time. We've created this culture of presenting happiness to the world, presenting joy, presenting our accomplishments online and through social media, the edited positive highlights of our lives. But the truth is, everyone suffers from time to time, and we need to normalise that and normalise conversations around that.

"The song I've chosen is one I definitely needed when I was going through a tough time a few years ago now. I found myself living alone for the first time ever. Within a few months of what was a big move, the first full-on lockdown hit, which meant I was pretty lonely because you know, as much as I love my dogs, they're not the greatest conversationalists. We are social animals, we need interaction with people in real life, not just through a screen.

"I had a lot of time on my hands, and I put together a playlist of songs that I knew would lift my mood when I needed a boost or when I just needed a break from the news, from all the noise. I saw that post that said turn the news down, turn the music up and when I needed to that's exactly what I did. I've always loved the song. There's a message in there somewhere about better days ahead as well. This is Tom Petty and ‘American Girl.’

Absolute Radio's 100 greatest albums:

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• tom petty
• Amy Winehouse
• Fleetwood Mac
• Pixies
• bjork
• joni mitchell
• Nirvana
• john denver